ENERGY

Exxon to Sign Sakhalin Island Pact: The Irving, Tex.-based oil company said it will sign a production-sharing agreement laying out terms to invest $15.2 billion in the oil and natural gas fields off Russia’s Sakhalin Island. The agreement is one of the largest hurdles the biggest U.S. oil company must pass to begin work on the project in frigid waters off the east coast of Russia near Japan. Exxon Corp. is awaiting approval of a bill working its way through the Russian legislature. The accord may signal an end to a logjam for other U.S. oil companies whose investment plans for Russia have been hobbled by rancorous politics in the wake of the Soviet Union’s dissolution. Exxon’s project would tap an estimated 2.5 billion barrels of oil and 15 trillion cubic feet of natural gas.